Waterfront Commission, shipping industry battle over program designed to fight organized crime

Frank H. Conlon/The Star-LedgerPort Newark falls under the oversight of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which has recently taken on a project designed to end organized crime in the industry.

TRENTON — Shipping industry and labor leaders told lawmakers in Trenton today a new program to fight organized crime in the New York harbor region would raise the cost of doing business and threaten thousands of jobs.

But a delegation from the bistate Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor presented a different picture.

These officials told chairman Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak and fellow committee members the program is to prevent job losses by giving companies an alternative to having their operating licenses revoked.

Today morning’s hearing was convened by Lesniak, a Democrat whose district includes part of the Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal container complex. He scheduled the session of the Senate Economic Growth Committee after the Waterfront Commission adopted the program in July.

Lesniak said he was considering a bill to curb the commission’s authority, or talking to Gov. Chris Christie, who can veto the commission’s budget, but not its minutes.

The commission can deny licenses to stevedores and other companies operating in the harbor region that commissioners believe are mob-influenced. Such denials can be appealed to an administrative law judge, and then to a state appeals court.

Walter Arsenault, the commission’s executive director, said the new program allows a company to operate even when commissioners are not convinced it is run cleanly. He said this is done by allowing the company accept oversight by a so-called independent private sector inspector general, appointed the commission and paid for by the company.

"The … program is an attempt to prevent companies from being shut down," Arsenault said.

But Joseph Curto, president of the New York Shipping Association, said the program jeopardizes $36 billion in economic activity and 270,000 jobs linked to the port. It would add costs and extra oversight to an industry already policed by federal, state and local law enforcement, he said.

Thomas A. Leonardis, president of Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, said the program only further tars the industry as mob-influenced.

He said that image — like the commission itself — is as outdated as the cargo hooks longshoreman used before containerization was introduced in 1956.